OV9

I feel seen.

It's carnage out there at the moment. Sky Bet have essentially binned off their entire gaming tribe with everyone going by the end of the year. They're owned by Flutter (who also own Paddy Power and Poker Stars) and there's loads of crossover between Paddy Power and Sky Bet. Paddy Power came in, cherry picked a few people, now they're killing Sky Bet off.

Here at proper Sky (we're owned by Comcast), pretty much all of News & Sports have just been axed (at least in Leeds). There was a massive recruitment drive here for Comcast's Engineering Centre in Chennai last year, I reckon within 3-5 years there'll be nothing of Sky in Leeds (there's currently 2000 people here and when I started, it was touted as the Engineering Excellence Centre) and it'll all be off-shore, Livingstone and Osterley. I know a couple of people working at Monzo and if I could get a Senior Engineer role there, I could be fully remote and get a £20k pay rise into the bargain. Hell, even if I took a mid role I'd still be £8k up.

@DeskJockey good luck for today!

@Delphi What's the reason for all this cutting? Efficiency or the economy?

duncs500 wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:20 am @DeskJockey good luck for today!

@Delphi What's the reason for all this cutting? Efficiency or the economy?

Thanks. It was yesterday.

Interview went well, good conversation, he seemed to like what I was saying and agreed with lots of my points. They're looking to move fast, so hopefully know something next week.

duncs500 wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:20 am
@Delphi What's the reason for all this cutting? Efficiency or the economy?

This is all Comcast's doing, things changed as soon as they took over. They're all about saving money. The office I'm based at in Leeds has 3 floors - the first floor is a call centre, the other two are software engineering and basically we're all about call savings (each time a customer rings Sky it costs £9 per call) and getting the customer to self-serve digitally. So we've got the situation floors 2 & 3 of the building are actively trying to make the 1st floor redundant. Sky makes a very healthy profit, but corporate greed is the overriding factor.

DeskJockey wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:22 am
Thanks. It was yesterday.

Interview went well, good conversation, he seemed to like what I was saying and agreed with lots of my points. They're looking to move fast, so hopefully know something next week.

Fingers crossed for you, Alex.

Delphi wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:49 am
Fingers crossed for you, Alex.

That!

Delphi wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:49 am

DeskJockey wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:22 am
Thanks. It was yesterday.

Interview went well, good conversation, he seemed to like what I was saying and agreed with lots of my points. They're looking to move fast, so hopefully know something next week.

Fingers crossed for you, Alex.

Cheers. If it doesn't come off, I'm back to square one with a couple of early conversations to chase/follow-up. Not the end of the world, but I can feel that it is beginning to impact my mental health. As much as I try to stay positive, and generally am, it is hard not to second-guess myself or look at the laundry lists of requirements and think, I can't do all of that or haven't got enough experience for that.

Important to remember that the JDs are at best wishlists, at worst just plain mad - hoping against sense that they can magic up a candidate that have the experience of 3-5 different roles, can do them all, and am willing to do it at a barely acceptable salary.

mik wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:51 am

Delphi wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:49 am
Fingers crossed for you, Alex.

That!

This!

DeskJockey wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:22 am

duncs500 wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:20 am @DeskJockey good luck for today!

@Delphi What's the reason for all this cutting? Efficiency or the economy?

Thanks. It was yesterday.

Interview went well, good conversation, he seemed to like what I was saying and agreed with lots of my points. They're looking to move fast, so hopefully know something next week.

Did you slide over a number on a napkin, down your beer and walk out saying “call me when you realise how much money I can make you”

If not, why not ?

Dave!

V8Granite wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 1:03 pm

DeskJockey wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:22 am

duncs500 wrote: Fri Jul 18, 2025 10:20 am @DeskJockey good luck for today!

@Delphi What's the reason for all this cutting? Efficiency or the economy?

Thanks. It was yesterday.

Interview went well, good conversation, he seemed to like what I was saying and agreed with lots of my points. They're looking to move fast, so hopefully know something next week.

Did you slide over a number on a napkin, down your beer and walk out saying “call me when you realise how much money I can make you”

If not, why not ?

Dave!

Of course. My valet handed over the letter with the numbers on it. One does not sully one's own hands with such menial things.

Times may change but I’m glad to see your standards have remained !

Dave!

Sadly, this one didn't come off.

Initial feedback is that it was down to the other candidate having more experience with the specific products, everything else was good and they really liked me.

The hiring manager has offered a feedback call tomorrow, I'll see what they say, but I'll take it as a positive hms bothering with it.

Early stages on a few others, but a long road.

Balls. But hopefully something of use in their feedback.

Sorry to hear the DJ, fingers crossed for you.

After five months of down time (which I enjoyed far too much) from my last contract I've now wheedled my way into permanency with the public service. Now just seventeen years to retirement...

Well that happened quicker than I anticipated. Had a call this morning entitled "Important Business announcement". My role is at risk. Just under half of the Senior Engineers are going. They started off the call saying they were investing loads and then turned around and said "These roles are at risk".

They then followed it up with an email which contained the lines "As a result, we’re proposing some changes to the structure and ways of working which will impact around 900 colleagues, with potentially 600 colleagues leaving if the proposals go ahead. This includes moving more work to our trusted global outsource partners so that we can be more flexible and responsive in how we operate." Translation "We're outsourcing your job to India because it's cheaper"

Hopefully I'll know more in a few weeks.

That sucks. Fingers crossed for you.

Delphi wrote: Tue Sep 16, 2025 1:45 pm Well that happened quicker than I anticipated. Had a call this morning entitled "Important Business announcement". My role is at risk. Just under half of the Senior Engineers are going. They started off the call saying they were investing loads and then turned around and said "These roles are at risk".

They then followed it up with an email which contained the lines "As a result, we’re proposing some changes to the structure and ways of working which will impact around 900 colleagues, with potentially 600 colleagues leaving if the proposals go ahead. This includes moving more work to our trusted global outsource partners so that we can be more flexible and responsive in how we operate." Translation "We're outsourcing your job to India because it's cheaper"

Hopefully I'll know more in a few weeks.

Fucksake! I'm still yet to find an "outsourced to India" that hasn't been a pain in the ass.

DeskJockey wrote: Tue Sep 16, 2025 1:50 pm That sucks. Fingers crossed for you.

That.

Jimmy Choo wrote: Tue Sep 16, 2025 8:27 pm

Delphi wrote: Tue Sep 16, 2025 1:45 pm Well that happened quicker than I anticipated. Had a call this morning entitled "Important Business announcement". My role is at risk. Just under half of the Senior Engineers are going. They started off the call saying they were investing loads and then turned around and said "These roles are at risk".

They then followed it up with an email which contained the lines "As a result, we’re proposing some changes to the structure and ways of working which will impact around 900 colleagues, with potentially 600 colleagues leaving if the proposals go ahead. This includes moving more work to our trusted global outsource partners so that we can be more flexible and responsive in how we operate." Translation "We're outsourcing your job to India because it's cheaper"

Hopefully I'll know more in a few weeks.

Fucksake! I'm still yet to find an "outsourced to India" that hasn't been a pain in the ass.

There are none. It is a flawed concept that only relies on a headline cost reduction (as long as you don't look too closely at the numbers).

By definition the provider will cut everything to the bone to make a profit, so it'll never be a good service.

But this isn't new, so I'll be quiet now.